Secretary Steen Successfully Completes 2013 Boots and Ballots Tour

AUSTIN, TX – Texas Secretary of State John Steen today announced the conclusion of his 2013 Boots and Ballots Tour after visiting all the military installations in Texas.

"One mission of my office is to make sure every qualified Texan who wants to vote can and that his or her vote is counted," said Steen. "That especially includes our military members whose duty takes them away from home."

Boots and Ballots is an initiative by the Elections Division in the Office of the Texas Secretary of State to prepare and provide military voters with additional resources to register to vote and participate in local, state and federal elections. In his visits to all 12 military installations across the state, Secretary Steen met with hundreds of voting assistance officers about resources his office prepared to help them in their mission to guide military members through the voting process.

But the meetings are not the end of the program.

"In addition to educating voting assistance officers about materials prepared especially for them, my staff and I wanted to introduce ourselves as a resource and create an ongoing line of communication," said Secretary Steen. "We are working to answer questions and provide updates to voting assistance officers.”

The military voting section of Texas’ voter resource website, www.VoteTexas.gov, has been updated with the new materials, including a simple checklist and video demonstrating how military and overseas voters cast a ballot through the Federal Post Card Application process (FPCA). The website also includes links to the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) and local county election officials.

Through this program, military and overseas voters are also being reminded the FPCA permanently registers them to vote, and serves as a ballot request for a calendar year so they do not have to request a ballot each time an election is held.

A post-election survey of the 2012 General Election shows 54,005 military ballots were sent and 32,221 were counted. By comparison, in 2010 49,789 military ballots were sent and 12,665 votes counted, while in 2008, just 24,915 military ballots were sent and 16,231 were counted.

Below is a list of the Texas military installations visited by Secretary Steen on his Boots and Ballots Tour: